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Reports of VHS's Death Highly Exaggerated
aicrules writes "What does it take to ensure that a technology choice will remain relevant and available to the general public? Well, being sold by Wal-Mart is certainly pretty high on that list. According to a CNN/Money article, Wal-Mart Stores will continue to sell VHS tapes for as long as its customers want them. With Best Buy, Circuit City, and Target all dropping sales of the VHS medium, how long can VHS hold out? What is the major reason for people still sticking with VHS?"
The advantages of the blanks should be clear enough... It's still not cheap/easy for most folks to record TV any other way.
1: My wife is pregnant with twins, and as much as I'd like to get a DVD of the ultrasounds, they spend their money on staying abreast with the latest childcare technologies, just like they should. So I need VHS to take those ultrasounds home with me (just did this today, in fact);
;)
2: My grandparents (in their late 80s) were very reluctant to accept VCR technology; moving them to DVD will be impossible. And we want them to see the ultrasounds.
For myself and a dozen million other people, VHS is still the cheapest easiest way to record TV programs. Yeah, yeah, I'm behind the tech curve because I don't TIVO or digitally record tv. I don't get tv via bit torrents and honestly, I just can't bring myself to spend the money or the time learning all of that. VCR. Put in Tape. Hit Record. Done.
This is not the way to build a lasting empire.
In this case, it was a press release that corrects an earlier (apparently incorrect) news article that had been making the rounds. I'd say that this is one of those cases where the press release takes care of the reporting all by itself.
My dad just bought one that offers one touch dubbing VHS & DVD+R/RW, in addition to being able to record directly to either.. I think he paid $200.
Betcha Macrovision prevents any copying of your purchased movies in either direction. On any hardware I've seen, this dubbing only works for unprotected tapes or DVDs (meaning home videos or recorded from TV).
Look at the tomato! Isn't it sad? He can't dance! Poor tomato!
also, as someone who is leaving work early right now to go to an ultra-sound to find out the sex of my incoming baby, they will record the ultrasound for you, but only if you bring your own VHS tape.
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
With a VCR, I can record as much as I want (for however many tapes I need), and *keep* those recordings - for as long as they will last. Case in point, my wife and I have *every* episode of X-Files recorded - plus every episode of Millenium. Sure, I could buy the DVDs, and the video would be better - but sometimes watching those old commercials can be entertaining by themselves. Plus, I didn't have to pay (again - because I already paid the cable company once).
I think that is why people aren't adopting "new recording media" - the new methods are locked down with DRM and such, or they aren't easy to share with friends, family, or even withing the same house (among sets in the house).
I think if a company came out and made a TIVO-like device (it wouldn't even need a program guide, but if it did, it would be great) that could record many hours of video, and easily network to any existing network or PC in your house, so that any PC (or any other of the same recording device) could "watch" the library of collected videos, and/or download them, etc - with NO DRM (ie, a straight MPEG2 or MPEG4 video) - to a fileserver (if you have one), etc - and make it all fairly easy to use (it wouldn't have to be dead simple - but making it very easy to use just for the machine and others on the network - maybe a built in wireless router or AP which would mesh network with other machines in the house?). Perhaps add USB2 or Firewire to make it easy to expand the hard drive size (or, make a "front load" hard drive bay for a hard drive upgrade option or something?).
Add on top of all that the ability to play MP3s from anywhere on the drive or on the network, audio/video inputs, ability to record audio to MP3, perhaps a DVD drive as well, plus web browsing, and give the MP3 player some nice visualizations for party use - you would have a killer box.
However, I don't expect to ever see such a thing, at least not in the near term, which I why I am planning on a custom box (right now centered on an old I-Cue PC Book PC box with a DVD drive, plus a small hard drive and networked to my Samba server - but maybe later if I like the setup, since it can't record, maybe building a Myth TV box).
Of course, as of late, for the past couple of weeks my wife and I have dropped even watching TV - we have started listening to books on CD from the library, so I think the TV is likely to become just "another monitor", mainly for movies and such...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
This is a perfect setup for families. Unfortunately, it's also illegal in the United States thanks to the DMCA. You see, every time your child scratches a disc or a new media format comes out, the MPAA wants you to repurchase the movie. The Little Mermaid is an excellent example of this as Disney only produces limited runs to drive up sales every few years.
It seems to me that the idea of recording with DVD turns most people off do to the copyright protections and laws involved. While newer VHS tapes do have some measure of protection built-in, it's easy to bypass and you don't hear about it in the news. Want to kill off VHS and make recordable DVD acceptable? Kill the DMCA and tell the MPAA to quit shooting their mouths off.
Request a Linux Shockwave player here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/email/wishform/
Obviously he has a video card with a TV-out.. How else is he getting them on VHS? Pfft. :)
The Philips DVP642 plays mpeg, mpeg2 (DVD), mpeg4 (Xvid).. $60 on amazon. I can highly recommend it.
Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
I made this point too, you have to bring a VHS tape in order to record your Ultrasound sessions. However, if you get a 3D Ultrasound, it burns them to cd in mpeg and jpeg formats. It's not worth it though. The thing is, the machine for the traditional ultrasound and the 3D ultrasound seemed to be the same, you would think it would record to the same medium.
I only mod up parents of "mod parent up" posts...
Have you tried the DVD? You have to scan through the entire movie to find your scene as it has just one chapter.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Play XVID, DIVX, DVD, MP3, SVCD, KVCD, etc etc all for $55 at walmart.
Then join groups.yahoo.com dvp642 and download one of the many hacked firmwares.
Region free, no macrovision, skip any previews, change the backround image, etc etc.
None of my 7 year old DVD's have problems. Infact, the bulk of my library of DVD's is over 4 years old, with 30% of it 6-7 years old. No problems to speak of here.
I think you're exaggerating your rot%. I've even got CD's from late 80's (mc hammer) that are in good shape. Unfortunately.
ahem.